


eighteen

by manzana



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M, au where sousuke & rin have never met before but everything else is pretty much the same, haha.... ah... yeah...., tinder au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-08
Updated: 2014-11-08
Packaged: 2018-02-24 14:37:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2584934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/manzana/pseuds/manzana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>good guy haru & good guy nagisa introduce their buddy rin to the magical world of smartphone dating apps</p>
            </blockquote>





	eighteen

**Author's Note:**

> for the purposes of this au: rin & sousuke have never met; rin, haru, nagisa are all in college and living relatively near each other; rin has an iphone. for the most part everything else is pretty much the same.
> 
> i don't know how tinder works soo uh i took its basic functions and fudged around with it
> 
> cross-posted from [tumblr](http://princessbubblgum.tumblr.com/post/102120085815/sourin-nagisa-haruka-8550-words-ao3-good)!!

_I was gone for two minutes_ Rin thinks to himself when he returns from the bathroom to meet Haru and Nagisa in the living room. _Not two minutes even. One minute at most._

The two are sitting close together on the floor, their heads bowed over what Rin can clearly see, judging by the bright pink dangling shark charm hanging over Haru's fingers, is Rin's cellphone. Haru is at the helm, tapping away quickly with his thumbs with an expressionless gaze while Nagisa balances his chin on his shoulder, pointing at the screen and whispering bits of advice that Haru nods in response to. 

It is rarely a good sign when these two are conspiring together. Rin knows this very well. Makoto knows this and Rei knows this too. They've each been a victim of it at least once, and even if they hadn't ever experienced it firsthand, just the knowledge that aloof Haru would otherwise be too unenthused to indulge Nagisa in everyday mischief means this is something potentially devastating. 

"What are you two doing?" Rin snaps when the two don't notice him right away. 

Nagisa jumps at the sound of his voice, like he'd been electrocuted, and turns his head just slightly to offer Rin overtly wide shaky grin. 

"O-oh, hey, Rin-chan!" There's a slight nervous quiver in his voice, which only confirms Rin's suspicions of their alleged collaborative mayhem. Nagisa had been on the receiving end of Rin's anger-induced noogies in retaliation to his pranks enough times to be rightfully anxious. 

Haru, however, immediately blurts, "we're trying to get you a life."

"Haru-chan!" Nagisa whispers sharply, head-butting him on the arm.

"Those were _your_ words," Haru whispers back.

"Okay, but _he_ didn't need to hear them!" 

Rin ignores the whispering, still stuck on the first thing Haru had said, and demands, "what the hell is that supposed to mean?" 

From the other side of the room, he stomps toward them in three short angry strides. Nagisa scoots out of his rampaging path, while Haru doesn't even so much as look up or blink, not even when Rin plucks his phone out of his fingers. 

Rin quickly scans the front of his phone where it's still displaying his home screen. Nothing appears to be out of the ordinary, not until he notices a tiny square he hadn't seen before suddenly illuminate, signifying it had finished downloading. There was a little picture of a red flame on the square but other than that he didn't know what else to make of it.

"Did you download a new app onto my phone?" He turns to stare at the two, finding them gazing up at him in what looked to be their attempt at innocence: Nagisa beaming brightly and Haru maintaining his pokerface. "What is this?"

"Nothing -- " Nagisa says quickly, but Haru speaks at the same time, mumbling, "it's a dating app."

"Haru-chan!"

"He was going to figure it out eventually." 

"A dating app." Blowing up at them would accomplish little, Rin realizes; he just has to calm down for a second. He pinches the bridge of his nose, breathes out heavily, and begins a mental countdown in his head. When he reaches zero, his stares up at them, his gaze even. "Why." 

"We're trying to get you a date, obviously." 

" _Why_ ," Rin persists. 

"You ask so many questions," Haru says. 

"It's because you're stressed out all the time!" Nagisa exclaims. "You need to have some fun! Dating is fun!"

"All you do is hang out with us, so you never meet anybody," Haru adds. 

Rin stares at them a second longer, then draws his gaze back to his phone. "I'm deleting this."

"No!" Nagisa cries, leaping to his feet to try and grab the phone. Rin holds it just out of his reach, watching him with a single raised eyebrow.

"Try it, Rin," Haru continues. 

"No."

"It'd be good for you." 

"You just want me to stop hanging around your apartment every weekend."

"Yes, but that's beside the point," Haru says. "I really do think you should try it." 

"No."

"Why," Haru says, throwing his question right back at him. "Give me one good reason why." 

"Because I don't want to!" He shoots a glare at Haru, his anger flaring. "Who are you to give me advice about my romantic endeavors anyway? You've never dated anyone in your life!" 

Haru glances away. "Not interested."

"Haru's not about that life," Nagisa interjects. "He's in a long-term relationship with the water."

Haru nods. "It's very serious." He says it in that delightful Haru-way that Rin hates so much, the kind where he can't tell if he's genuine or kidding because he says literally everything in the same tone of voice. 

Rin rolls his eyes. "This is dumb." 

"It's fun, Rin-chan, I swear!" Nagisa says, tugging on his arm. "You don't have to meet up with anybody! It's even just fun looking at their pictures!" 

"Why are _you_ using this?" Rin snaps, waving the phone around at Nagisa's face. "You're in a relationship!" 

"It's just for fun, like I said!" Nagisa says. "Rei-chan does it with me! We sit around looking at people's pictures and evaluate their hotness together!" Nagisa pauses. "I mean, he gets more of a kick out of trying to figure out the matchmaking algorithms, but, y'know -- whatever!" 

Rin can't bring himself to argue any further about this, not when they both seem so dead-set on him going through with it. All the same, he falters slightly when he holds up his phone again, hesitating as his thumb hovers over the app in an attempt to delete it. He wouldn't admit this to either of them, but he'd considered doing something like this himself for the longest time, and if they hadn't approached him about it first, he probably would have went through with it eventually.

"Just for a little bit, Rin-chan!" Nagisa continues, tugging on his arm again. "Haru-chan and I will even take care of setting it up for you! If you don't like it, you can get rid of it!" 

Longtime friendship with Nagisa has made Rin fairly familiar with his unwavering determination akin to that of a tenacious five-year-old, of his inability to relent or waver when he has his mind set on something. Wanting to avoid the never-ending high-pitched badgering, Rin sighs a haggard sigh and holds his phone out for Haru to grab. 

" _Fine_. Don't make me sound stupid."

"Yay, Rin-chan!" 

Nagisa encircles Rin in a tight squeezing hug before bouncing away and sliding down to the floor right up against Haru's side once again. 

"Tap the app, let's make him a profile!" 

Haru does as he's told, and when the app fully loads the Edit Profile page, he's entreated to a multitude of text boxes to fill out. One of the first few asks him to list the user's interests, and Haru stares at the phone for only half a second before tapping out "swimming."

"Easy. Next."

"I like other things besides swimming." 

"Do you?" Haru frowns. "What else is there to like?"

Rin sighs.

Haru turns back to the phone, still frowning at it, then starts to type. "Meat…" 

"Don't put that I like meat!"

"…Protein…?" 

Nagisa laughs loudly behind his hands, "likes: swimming and protein." 

"Right. Done. Moving on."

"Haru, you suck at this," Rin snaps. He finally joins them on the floor, slamming down to sit in a huff. Where Nagisa occupies Haru's left shoulder with his chin, Rin balances his own on the right, propping himself up beside Haru with one hand on the floor behind him. 

Filling out the rest of the profile takes a ridiculous amount of time, if only because Haru insists that he or Nagisa have all the answers and anything Rin has to contribute is frivolous information. Inevitably, for everything Haru fills in, Rin already has an objection ready. In his stubbornness to stick to his own answers, Haru refuses to relinquish the phone back into Rin's hands, no matter how much wrestling he has to endure to keep it away. 

At one point this exchange happens:

"Ooh! Put that he's DTF!" 

"Okay."

"No, don't put that down!"

They're already in mid-wrestling position from the last time Haru typed down something particularly ludicrous, with Rin's torso draped over Haru's legs and his arms struggling to reach out for the phone. Haru himself is stretching his limbs long enough so that the phone is just out of Rin's reach. 

"Why," Haru asks. 

"Do you know what that means?" Rin retorts. 

"No."

"So don't put it! Why would you put it down if you don't know what it means?" 

"Because Nagisa said to." 

"You do whatever Nagisa says?!" 

"I trust he knows what he's talking about."

From a safe distance away from the previous scuffle and sitting on his knees, Nagisa shoots a finger gun right at Rin, winking and sticking out his tongue as he does. Rin glares in return.

"I'm putting it."

"Haru, I swear -- "

Amid the arguing and the physical violence inflicted on one another, they eventually reach a happy compromise when Haru changes certain details to appease Rin. Answers for questions like "career goal" change from "shark wrangler" to "olympic swimmer", and "ideal perfect date" changes from "sitting alone in a bathtub with a plate of steak" to "hiking."

When all of that is done and other settings like age range and sexual preferences have been inputed, Nagisa grabs the phone from Haru and taps on it furiously before aiming it at Rin. "Now you need a profile picture!" 

The camera turns on and Rin's angry face floods the screen. 

"Smile!" 

The scowl hardens further, if that were possible, with his eyes narrowing into slits and the bridge of his nose scrunching up. 

Nagisa clicks his tongue, shaking his head. "That is _not_ cute, Rin-chan." He frowns and snaps the pictures anyway. "I'll save it to the album, but we're not using that face to lure in boys." 

Haru holds out a hand and Nagisa tosses the phone to him. Scooting closer to Rin, he taps away at the phone, then stretches his arm away from them and pivots the phone around in his hand so the screen is facing them. They stare up at their faces reflected back at them, Haru with his face as expressionless as ever and Rin now cocking an eyebrow in confusion.

"Here, Rin. Selfie." 

Rin snaps his head to stare at Haru with wide eyes. "You want to take a selfie with me?"

"Yes."

"I've asked you like a million times, and you've never wanted to take a selfie with me!"

"Not today. Smile." 

And he does. A big, bright, toothy smile, genuine and elated and completely triggered by Haru's decision to take this picture in the first place, stretching wide across his face and crinkling the corners of his eyes. 

"Me too!" Nagisa declares, wiggling right up to them and sandwiching Rin between himself and Haru. They take about five more pictures, Rin looking as radiant as ever, even taking care to hold up a victory sign alongside Nagisa. Even Haru smiles a tiny closed-mouth smile, which only makes Rin grin harder.

Rin is chattering about making the picture his phone background, about assigning it to Haru's contact information so it'll pop up every time he calls, and all the while Haru has pulled the phone back to himself, fiddling around with it. After a moment, he hands it back to Rin. 

"Okay. Here." 

Rin continues to wear his smile even as he takes the phone back and begins scrolling through his photo album to find the pictures. His smile drops almost instantly. 

"You cropped yourself out!" 

"Yup. Nagisa too."

"Where's the one with all of us?"

"It's gone forever." Haru points at the picture of a solo Rin now displayed on the screen. "This is cute, though." 

"Dammit, Haru!" 

While Rin fumes at the smug little grin Haru now wears, Nagisa snatches the phone out of his hand. 

"Good work, Haru-chan!" He taps around on the screen. "Aaaand your profile is done!" 

"An hour later," Rin mumbles. "So what now." 

Nagisa holds out the phone so all three of them can see. There's a map of the neighborhood surrounding Haru's apartment, and right where the apartment would be located, there's a pulsating dot radiating waves in circles around it. 

"It's looking for people in the area that are also using the app, and, based on your compatibility, it matches you up with some of them!" 

As he speaks, a notification pops up on the screen.

"Look, you've got some!" Nagisa taps the notification and it opens up the first photo. Pictured is a scrawny boy with mousy brown hair. He holds up some kind of weird gesture with the same hand that is trying to slide up the hem of shirt in a way that is probably meant to be seductive. He's also obviously taking the picture in the mirror of his bathroom. 

"Uh," Rin says, staring down at his phone.

"And then you swipe the photo to the right if you're interested and to the left if you aren't -- "

Rin immediately swipes the photo to the left. 

"There you go!"

Another picture reveals itself, this time of a lighter-haired boy posing in front of what is likely his own house. Before Nagisa or Haru can get a good look at it, Rin has already gotten rid of it with a swipe to the left. The same thing happens with the next five photos, his reaction quicker each time.

"Slow down, Rin," Haru scolds, frowning. "Are you even looking at them."

"Yes! None of them are even the slightest bit attractive! How did I get matched up with these people?" 

"They lump all the equally attractive people together." 

"Shut up, Haru, no they don't!" 

Rin does slow down a bit after that, if only so the three of them can now criticize the composition of each photos more in-depthly. 

"Did he take this at his grandmother's house…? What's with the wallpaper."

"A fedora. Really." 

"Ooh, this one has a tattoo…of a sexy monk, well, alright, that's a little -- " 

"Rin, look, you two look like you shop at the same thrift store."

"Shut _up_ , Haru!" 

After a slew of photos, a familiar face suddenly pops up. 

"Ah!" Nagisa nearly screams in Rin's ear, pointing excitedly at it. "That's me!"

Rin didn't think he'd ever seen a more blatantly flirtatious look from his friend in his entire life.

"Are you lying on your bed while taking this?"

"Of course!"

Before Rin can even react, Nagisa swipes the photo to the right himself, then launches across the room to find his own phone. He crouches in the corner by his bag, tapping at his keyboard for a bit until Rin gets another notification on his screen that declares "It's a match!"

"What the hell is happening." 

"It means you liked each other's photos," Haru says, drawing his finger under the words on the screen that stated that exact explanation. He reaches out to tap on the app until it reveals another screen that resembles a text window. Near the tiny circle containing Nagisa's picture is a gray bubble of text that reads: 

_when u like each other, u can chat!!!_ ꒰♡ˊ͈ ु꒳ ूˋ͈꒱.⑅*♡ 

Rin began typing away at his phone and then presses send

_fuck off_

"RIN-CHAN!"

"Honestly," Rin says as he proceeds to block Nagisa and delete their conversation. "I think the chatting function is the least of my concerns. Not going to get that far with any of these people."

"Not if you're so picky," Haru chides. "You're making this not fun." 

"Set your standards just a liiittle bit lower, Rin-chan," Nagisa says, returning to them. 

"Who are you looking for exactly?" Haru demands, frowning. "A model? A movie star? They're not going to be using a dating app on their cell phone."

"Let us help!" 

Rin rolls his eyes, but holds up the phone, ar enough back for all of them to see. The three end up repositioning themselves so that they're all laying flat on their stomachs side by side, with Rin in the middle and his phone accessible to all of them. This time, upon returning to the app, they take a bit more time considering each new individual. Haru and Nagisa start reaching out every so often to swipe as well, and, while Rin admits that the guys they were picking were, for the most part, not awful, certain patterns do begin to emerge. 

"Ooh, that one!" Nagisa declares, swiping the photo to the right. 

"Nagisa," Rin says slowly, glancing at him in the corner of his eyes. "Are you only picking guys with glasses?"

Nagisa flushes. "No! Of course not! Don't be silly! He -- uh -- he had really nice hair!"

Rin is too busy watching at Nagisa wave his hands in front of his still blushing face that he almost misses when Haru reaches out to swipe a picture of his own. He'd caught a glimpse of the photo, though, in the corner of his eye, and whips around to slap Haru's hand away, as if that could undo what he'd already done. 

"Haru!"

"What." Haru glares at him, looking offended that he had been unjustly slapped. 

"Why'd you pick _that_ guy?!"

"He had a dog."

"So? His smile was really creepy!"

"He had a dog. He's probably pretty nice -- oh." Haru's eyes trail down to the phone again. "This one has a cat." 

Rin quickly intercepts his finger by placing his entire hand over the phone screen.

Of all the people Rin has a match with -- which, admittedly was most of the people the three of them had collectively picked -- four of them begin conversations with Rin. Two ask for "dick pics," so Rin blocks them both and deletes both of their conversations immediately. One asks him, "what kind of proteins are you into" and then "my dick is a protein," and after Rin scolds Haru for not changing that part of of his profile yet, he blocks him as well. The last one simply says, "hello" and Rin responds with "hey." The conversation dies there until twenty minutes later when the guy sends him a picture of his penis. 

"Alright," Rin mumbles, deleting the photo and the conversation with one hand while shielding Haru's eyes with the other. "This has been really productive." 

"One more!" Nagisa crows, quickly discarding about ten more photos with quick swipes to the left. 

"Nagisa, I don't think this is working out -- "

"Wait!" Nagisa stops at one photo, his eyes growing wide. "Look at this one!" 

The three of them crowd their heads over the phone screen. It's hard to decipher what they're looking at at first, if only because, unlike the last batch of photos they'd looked at, this one is candid, with the subject not staring straight up at them. There's man in the picture, in the center of focus but farther away from the camera so that his surroundings dominate the rest of the picture. With a towel over his head and only a tuft of dark hair, a nose, and his chin poking out beneath it, his face is only just _barely_ visible. 

No, his face is not the main attraction of this photo. 

"What is happening here," Rin mutters, frowning. "Why is he shirtless? What a prick." 

"At least he's not posing in a bathroom," Haru mutters. 

Nagisa has yet been able to take his gaze off of the picture. His eyes are wide and shining, and he looks more awestruck than anything. 

"He's got such a nice body, though…" he mumbles, sounding as if in a daze. 

Haru's eyes scan the screen with a listless stare until he recognizes something. His eyebrows shoot up. "There's a pool."

Without warning, his finger shoots out and he's swiped the photo about a quarter of the way to the right before Rin grabs his hand and squeezes it painfully.

"Cut it out, Haru!" 

"There's a _pool_ , Rin." 

"Well at least there's an explanation for his lack of clothing," Rin mutters. "But don't just go swiping people without asking me! That's worked out so well before."

"Who cares why he's not wearing a shirt? We don't need an explanation if he looks like _that_." Nagisa somehow manages to focus his vision on something else besides the chiseled torso of the man in the picture, and he lights up. "Ah, you've got a 95% compatibility with this guy! That's really good!" 

"I don't know what that means."

"Swipe him, Rin-chan!" 

"I can't even see his face!"

"WHO CARES. LOOK AT HIS ABS." 

"Fine. Stop yelling in my ear." 

Admittedly, this guy did have a really nice body. Rin would have to be blind not to see that. If that's all they were going by, then this was definitely a winner. But Rin recalls Haru's comment from earlier, that models and movie stars would not be using this app and that he shouldn't expect to come across anyone even remotely similar, and so to finally find the closest thing to that definition made this seem way too good to be true. 

Reluctantly, Rin reaches out a finger and half-heartedly swipes the photo to the right. The app immediately alerts him that it's a match.

"Wow, good for you, Rin-chan!"

"Nagisa, if this guy even so much as mentions the word penis, I'm deleting this and I'm going home." 

The man -- Sousuke, they realize; it had said as much under his picture, but they'd all been too distracted to notice -- doesn't initiate conversation right away, so they decide to investigate his profile page. There's not much on there, which annoys Rin. All they find is some basic info, like height -- 

"HE'S A TREE!" 

"Nagisa, calm down."

\-- and his age, which is the same as Rin and Haru. Under his the "About" section of his profile is a single sentence: 

_please do not talk to me if you are annoying._

"Man, this guy is a prick," Rin mutters. 

"You're one to talk," Haru says. "You've been saying more or less the same thing under your breath the entire time we've been doing this." 

"Yeah, well, I didn't put it in my profile!"

"You didn't even make your profile. You probably would have put that if you had." 

As Rin reaches out a hand to angrily shove Haru's face away, Nagisa begins tapping ahead to look at the rest of Sousuke's photos. There's three others besides the profile picture. All of them are candid, with the first taken at a distance. He's in a competitive pool, his body half rising out of the water and his mouth open wide as he takes a large gulp of air. Between the goggles and swim cap, his facial features are still largely indistinguishable. 

"He swims the same stroke as you, Rin-chan."

Rin blows an unimpressed breath of air between his lips. 

"His form looks good," Haru murmurs. "He has a decent amount of upper body strength." He glances at Rin. "He probably swims butterfly better than you do."

"Nobody asked you, Haru." 

The second picture is of him in the pool again, but is closer now, as if being taken from above him right at the edge of the pool. He's caught in mid action, grasping the edge of the pool in one hand while the other is tugging off his goggles and swim cap in one fluid motion frozen in time. 

"Does he have any pictures of himself not in a pool…?"

"Stop complaining," Haru snaps. 

As if to answer Rin's question, the third picture is yet another candid photo, this time not featuring the pool. It looks like somebody's home, if the furniture in the background of the shot is anything to go by. It's taken from Sousuke's front as he leans against a wall, though he's in the middle of talking or laughing, his mouth open in a smile as he focuses on someone off camera to the side. He's got a can of soda in one hand, the other tucked into the pocket of his jeans.

With this photo, Rin can see his face very clearly now. Amid the dark hair and the crooked little grin he wears, even amid the few undone top buttons of his form-fitting gray shirt, the most definitive detail Rin takes away from the photograph is that this guy has probably got the bluest eyes he'd ever seen on another human being. And this was coming from someone who was currently sitting right next to Haruka Nanase. 

"Whoa," Rin breathes.

"Right?" Nagisa elbows him. 

"Who keeps taking these pictures," Haru asks, cocking an eyebrow. "Did he pay someone to follow him around and take glamor shots." 

"Who gives a shit, Haru," Rin says, tapping back on the app until it takes him to his inbox of conversations. "Why hasn't he started talking to me yet?" He narrowed his eyes. "Does this asshole think he's too good for me or something?" 

"You wanna talk to him!" Nagisa exclaims.

"Yes, I do," Rin mumbles. "I assumed he'd say something first, though." 

"You can start conversations too, you know," Haru points out.

"Fine." 

Rin taps around on the screen until it pulls up the conversation page. 

He pauses.

"What should I say."

"A greeting would be a good start," Haru mumbles. 

"Smart-ass," Rin mutters. He types out _hi_ , deletes it, types out _hello_ , deletes that, and then types _hey_. 

"Are you done or did you want to try saying hello in other languages." 

"Shut _up_ , Haru." 

"Put a smiley!" Nagisa insists. "That really sets the tone of your hello!" He reaches out and types out the necessary punctuation marks that eventually produce a winky face. 

"That's not too forward?" Haru asks. 

"Yeah, I guess that's kinda creepy," Nagisa says, tilting his head and frowning. "The normal smiley should be fine." 

Rin adjusts the emoticon accordingly, then presses send. 

The three remain silent, waiting and staring at the phone for what feels like forever, until finally Sousuke responds. 

**oh**

**uh**

**hi**

"What the hell?" Rin growls. "What the hell kind of response is that?" 

"Rin, calm down."

"No, just what the hell -- "

Another message pops up.

 **sorry, i didn't think you'd start talking to me. you caught me off guard.**

Rin blinks, then exchanges a glance with Nagisa and Haru, both of whom shrug. 

_why would you think that?_

Sousuke takes just as long to respond, but when he finally does, he says

**you're really cute. really pretty.**

**didn't think you;d want to talk to me.**

**but i'm glad you did ;)**

"Oh my gosh, look how red Rin-chan's face is!" Nagisa cries, giggling ridiculously behind his fingers. 

"NAGISA." 

Nagisa has to actually roll several feet away to avoid Rin grabbing him in a headlock. He continues cackling from his safe distance away, all while Rin fumes in his direction. 

"He said something," Haru mumbles. Rin rushes back to his phone so quickly he knocks into Haru and sends him reeling backwards. 

**shit**

**uh**

**that was supposed to be a normal smile**

**:)**

**like that**

**god. sorry. that was weird.**

**i don't normally do this. sorry.**

"Oh my god, he's cute," Rin mumbles behind the hand he'd clasped to his mouth. He quickly types out a reply

_it's ok, i dont mind ;)_

_don;t normally do what?_

**er, dating app? i didn't really want to but my friend kind of coerced me into doing it**

_mine too!! they're right here. they're laughing at me._

**laughing? why**

_because, um_

That's when Nagisa steals the phone. 

_BECAUSE YOURE REALLY HOT AND IT'S MAKING RIN BLUSH_

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU. I'M LITERALLY GOING TO KILL YOU."

"RIN-CHAN PLEASE!" 

While Rin begins chasing Nagisa around the apartment, Haru picks up the abandoned phone, and glances down at the screen.

**um haha uh hi….**

**thanks…**

_rin likes swimming too. you two should swim together._

**is that what the dtf is for?**

**down to freestyle**

_do you swim free_

**i prefer butterfly, but it's one of my strokes, yeah**

_i approve of this union. you have my blessing_

**thanks…….**

"HARU, GET AWAY FROM MY PHONE."

_uh rin is back bye_

**later**

Rin takes care to press his foot down on the top of Haru's head as he snatches his phone back. Haru takes the abuse quietly, as does Nagisa as he comes shuffling back into the room rubbing the top of his own head. 

"Now leave me alone," Rin snaps. With his phone in tow, he strides over to the armchair in the corner of the room, lounging himself across the arms and returning to the phone. 

_sorry about that!!_

**no worries. where'd you go**

_i had to go beat up the first one and accidentally left my phone at the mercy of the second_

**did you really beat him up**

**you sound aggressive**

**is that from all the protein**

_oh my god_

_i didn't write any of my profile, for the record_

_that would be idiot friend number two_

**haha i figured…**

_but yes._

_i can get a little aggressive_

_i hope you can handle that ;)_

**oh**

**um**

**haha ah**

**uh**

**yeah**

Rin snickers behind his hand.

"Did you really just go hide in the corner so you could flirt on your phone," Nagisa mumbles, cocking an eyebrow.

"I said leave me alone~" Rin sing-songs, flipping them both off with one hand. 

Haru and Nagisa endure a minute more of this, Rin tapping away at his phone and laughing fondly behind his hand every other second, before deeming it torturous. Nagisa quickly comes up with a new activity -- "Let's skype call Mako-chan and Rei-chan and tell them what we did tonight!" -- which Rin encourages: "do it in a different room, please." They excuse themselves to Haru's bedroom, leaving Rin alone in the living room.

When they emerge two hours later, he's still sitting in the same position. He doesn't look like he's moved at all, in fact, still staring at his phone, still wearing the same faint red blush on his cheek, still half-biting his bottom lip and half-grinning in delight. Something particularly exciting happens on his phone just as the two enter the room and his actually _giggles_ in a way that the other two had only heard out of teenage schoolgirls.

They decide enough is enough when he starts twirling a strand of loose hair between his finger as he thinks up a response. 

"Having fun, Rin-chan?" Nagisa asks, his fingers laced behind his back.

Either he's blatantly ignoring them or didn't hear him at all, because he says nothing, only starts tapping furiously at his phone with his tongue sticking out the corner of his mouth. 

"I need to go to class tomorrow," Haru mumbles. "You both need to get out. Or let me sleep, whatever, I don't really care whether you stay here or go."

Nagisa has no desire to be left alone with Rin in Haru's living room, not in Rin's current state, so he inches forward closer toward him, reaching out tentatively to tap him on the shoulder. 

"Did you hear that, Rin-chan?" he asks timidly. "Haru-chan wants us to go home…" 

His hand is inches away from Rin's shoulder when Rin suddenly sits up, staring at them like he had forgotten where he was was, forgotten who these people were, like he had just crash landed back on Earth after a trip to outer space. 

"What?" He blinks a couple times, then glances at his watch. "Oh. Okay. Yeah, sorry, Haru." 

They're quiet when slipping their shoes back on, their words minimal as they bid Haru goodbye, mostly silent on the walk to the train station, save for Nagisa's occasional commentary regarding random things they pass on the way there. Rin mumbles a response once in awhile, but there's faint smile in his tone when he does, and when Nagisa peeks at him in the corner of his eyes, he sees a faraway look on his face, his gaze distant. Nagisa smiles knowingly. 

"I knew you'd like the dating app, Rin-chan," Nagisa says suddenly when they're already seated in the train. 

It's like Rin has been electrocuted, the way he jumps at the words. He glances sideways at Nagisa, who's grinning up at him and nudging him slightly with his shoulder. It takes a second, but then Rin is grinning back too.

"He likes the same video games I do." 

"I'm sure he does," Nagisa giggles. "95% compatibility is nothing to mess around about." 

Haru gets a text to his phone about an hour later. 

_oh my god haru IT WAS AWFUL_

_I STARTED TALKING ABOUT THE APP AND THEN HE IGNORED ME FOR THE REST OF THE TRAIN RIDE_

**you brought that upon yourself**

_i saw one of the messages!!!!! SUPER GROSS!!!!_

**was he being inappropriate**

**do we need to tell on him to kou**

_THEY WERE JUST BEING REALLY GROSSLY CUTE_

_dating app boy said something about wanting to hold rin-chan's hand????_

_IT WAS TOO MUCH EVEN FOR ME_

**dont tell me these things when im about to go to sleep, im going to have nightmares**

_WE'VE CREATED A MONSTER_

 

 

About a month later the three reconvene in Haru's apartment again. 

Nagisa has already been there for awhile before Rin arrives much later than he'd promised to be there. The other two are sprawled around in the living room immersed in a video game when he lets himself in, toeing off his shoes and apologizing for his lateness. They invite him into the game as soon as he enters the room, and, after playing for a few hours, Haru heads off to the kitchen to prepare something for them to snack on. Placing his controller down next to him, Rin lays back on the ground next to Nagisa, pillowing his head on his folded arms. 

Nagisa assumes enough time has passed now that it's safe to bring this up again and so, with a smug little grin, he says, "sooo… Rin-chan. How's the dating app going?" 

Rin shrugs.

"I deleted it." 

That answer is a little unexpected. Nagisa blinks, tilting his head to the side and frowning. "Really? I thought you were having fun with it."

"It was fun for a little while, but I got over it." Rin retrieves his phone from his pants pocket before handing it over to Nagisa. "See for yourself." 

After a few seconds of tapping through the phone, Nagisa finds that the app is in fact no longer there. He sighs, partly relieved that Rin's sickeningly sweet episode is over with, that he might actually pay attention to them while he's with them today. He makes the sigh sound wistful though and offers a sad smile to Rin when he says, "aww, well, at least you tried it out, Rin-chan! I'm proud of you." 

Rin shrugs again.

A wicked thought comes to Nagisa just then and he quickly taps around on the phone again. He feels like his eyes are going to fall out of his head when he finds what he was looking for, and then a loud burst of laughter explodes out of him. 

"OH, WOW."

Rin jumps, alarmed, staring up at him like he had just done something outrageous. 

"HARU. OH MY GOSH." 

Haru pokes his head out of the kitchen just as Nagisa jumps to his feet and runs toward him. 

"LOOK AT THIS!" 

"What are you -- " Rin mumbles, frowning after him. Then it clicks. Whatever it is Nagisa has, Rin remembers the only thing it could possibly be, and then his face is on fire. " _Nagisa!_ " 

He's too late. Nagisa has already reached Haru, holding out the phone for him to look at while he's doubled over laughing next to him. 

"Rin," Haru mumbles, tilting his head to the side as he examines the phone. "What are you doing here…"

"N-nothing! None of your business!"

"HE'S TAKING A SEXY SELFIE IN THE BATHROOM." 

"NAGISA!" 

There's probably about twenty seconds between himself and his painful murder, Nagisa realizes as he watches Rin scramble to his feet, so he quickly scrolls through the rest of Rin's photo album, looking for something even more incriminating. He suddenly gasps loudly, almost dropping the phone when he does. 

"THERE'S NUDES IN HERE." 

He erupts into the most ridiculous bout of laughter, tears spilling from his eyes as he hands the phone over to Haru. 

"RIN-CHAN! HOW SCANDALOUS!" 

Haru doesn't look at the pictures himself, only holds the phone out for Rin to snatch away from him. "Who are you sending these to…"

"Nobody!" 

"Didn't your dating app boyfriend tell you about the magic of Snapchat, you colossal nerd?!" Nagisa cries through his laughter. 

"Nagisa, shut up!" Rin taps around angrily on his phone, trying desperately to delete the photos though the damage has already been done. Under his breath, he mutters, "the pictures don't last long enough on Snapchat, anyway," which only makes Nagisa laughs harder.

"Well, this is a side of you I could have done without seeing," Haru mutters. 

"I don't want to hear anything for you, prude," Rin snaps. "You're both awful." 

"Are you two texting now?" Nagisa asks, his laughter gradually subsiding. "What's his name in your phone? _Sou-chan~_?"

"I'm gonna kill you." 

Losing interest, Haru retreats back into his kitchen, asking, "have you met him yet, Rin?" as he returns to cutting up cucumber slices.

"No."

"So how do you know you're not getting catfished?" Nagisa asks.

"Not getting _what_?" 

"Y'know, like -- " Nagisa waves his hand around in the air. "How do you know he is who he says he is? Like, how do you even know if those pictures of him are real?" 

To answer this, Rin returns to his phone, scrolling through it before handing it over to Nagisa. 

Nagisa takes one look, and then his eyes nearly bulge out of his head.

"Did he write your name on his…?"

"Yes."

"Okay, he's totally real," Nagisa mumbles, unable to take his eyes off the phone. "Wow, Rin-chan, you really lucked out here."

"Yeah." Rin shrugs. "I guess I can't really tell whether he's been honest with me, but talking to him has been nice for what it is." 

"Where does he live?" Haru asks.

"Not too far from here actually. Hence why I got the match while I was over here a few weeks ago." 

"So why haven't you met him yet?" 

Rin pauses before answering, rubbing the back of his neck as he mulls over his answer. 

"I want to." 

"But…?" 

"I don't know. It just hasn't happened yet."

Haru frowns. "What, are you waiting for a _sign_ or something?" 

"Yeah, Rin-chan, there's no time like the present!" Nagisa declares. "You're not doing anything today, what about right now?"

"What? Wait, hold on -- " 

It's not until Nagisa is already in the middle of it that Rin realizes what he's doing. Nagisa locates the most recent conversation in his text inbox, pleased to find that while Rin resisted labeling him under some cutesy nickname, he did take care to include a single heart eyes emoji after Sousuke's name. It takes all of Nagisa's self-control not to scroll through the rest of the conversation, although he can't help but read the latest text from Sousuke: _have fun with your friends today <3_

He knows he's got precious little time when Rin begins reaching out to snatch his phone back, so, dodging Rin's hands as he does, he quickly types out his message.

 _SOU-CHAN WHAT'RE YOU UP TO_

Nagisa has to start moving his feet if he wants to avoid Rin relinquishing the phone from him, and so he begins sprinting the length of the apartment, leaping over furniture and doing laps around the table in the living room. He even goes so far as to run back into the kitchen and try to climb his way to the top of the refrigerator, although Rin grabs his leg before he gets far enough.

**oh it's you again. hello.**

_DO YOU HAVE SOME TIME RIGHT NOW_

**i suppose? im just at home.**

_RIN-CHAN WANTS TO MEET UP WITH YOOOUUASLKDF;LASD;;N;LK_

_please ignore everything he just said omg im so sorry…………._

No response follows and Rin feels a wave of mortification wash over him. He's shooting dangerous angry glances at Nagisa, the other boy shrinking back from the sheer intensity of the glares, before the phone suddenly starts vibrating in Rin's hand. He glances down at it to find that he's getting a call.

From Sousuke. 

Rin freezes. Nagisa freezes. Even all sound and movement in the kitchen halts as Haru listens as well. The phone vibrates twice before Rin tentatively accepts the call and raises it to his ear.

He's greeted by a low voice, a smug grin evident in the tone. 

"So you _don't_ want to meet up with me."

This wasn't the first time the two had spoken over the phone to each other, but Rin was starting to believe it might be impossible for him to hear that voice and not feel warm at the sound. He somehow gathers his composure to respond, stomping just the tiniest bit with his right foot as he sharply retorts, "that's not what I meant -- !" 

"Because when you told me you'd be in the area again today, I was _kind_ of hoping…" 

Rin scoffs. "You could've said something if that's what you wanted." 

"You make me really shy, you know." 

"God, you're embarrassing." Rin can't fight the smile that forces itself across his lips, even as he bites his bottom lip in an attempt to hide it. 

"From the reigning king of embarrassment himself, I'll take that as a compliment."

"Shush." 

And so arrangements are made. Haru recommends a book store for a rendezvous point -- one he didn't discover on his own, but found on an afternoon walk with Makoto some months ago. They leave shortly after the phone call ends, after Rin has spent about twenty minutes primping in the bathroom, and with enough time for them to find the place. Rin remains calm the entire walk there, strolling along with an air of confidence, feeling relaxed enough even to make snide remarks to Haru that "this better not be someplace weird, alright? I know you." 

It's when they're a few stores away and see Sousuke standing there, his hands tucked into his jacket pockets, staring up and down the length of the street in all directions but the one they're in, it's then that Rin seizes up, halting his footsteps almost immediately so that Haru and Nagisa take several more steps before realizing he's no long with them. His eyes are wide, his lips pressed tightly together, his fists balling at his sides. 

Nagisa and Haru exchange small smiles. 

"Don't be nervous, Rin-chan! You look really cute!" Nagisa says gently, walking back to him. He smooths out the wrinkles on Rin's shirt, undoes the small tangle in his necklace, straightens the beanie on his head, then holds out a hand to grasp one of Rin's. He rubs his thumb against Rin's knuckles in a soothing manner until he feels the fist relax and slacken beneath his touch.

"I'm not nervous," Rin insists under his breath. "You guys didn't have to come with me, you know."

"We're making sure he's not an axe murderer," Haru says. "Just in case we need to rescue you."

It's at that moment that Sousuke's scan of the street draws his eyes in their direction and he spots them. Nagisa hears the sharp intake of breath, feels Rin's fist clench again, all the more so when Sousuke smiles in recognition and raises a hand in a small wave. 

"Go," Rin snaps, wrenching his hands back to himself and using them to shoo at the two. "Leave. Goodbye. Thanks for escorting me, mom and dad, but please disappear." 

They don't leave, of course they don't, but they allot Rin to walk about ten steps away before they inch after him, and grant him the mercy of them pretending to be interested in the window of the shop right next to the bookstore rather than getting much closer than that. He's too distracted to notice them anyway, if there was any indication in the way he practically floats away from them. The closer he gets, the wider Sousuke's smile gets, and when Rin stops right in front of him, the other two can hear the low rumbly nervous laughter that was surely coming from the other man. 

"Hello there," Sousuke says through his smile. 

"Hi," Rin responds, and even with his back to them, Haru and Nagisa can tell he's grinning too. 

When Nagisa peeks a glance, he's amused by the very obvious height difference, with Sousuke towering over Rin, and yet looking somehow smaller against the confident commanding presence Rin always seemed to carry with him. He gazes down at Rin like he's made of diamonds, brilliant and blinding and precious, and it's witnessing this gaze that finally convinces Nagisa that he's overstepping some boundaries here. He quickly turns back to the window. 

"You're a lot taller than you look in your photos," Rin remarks snidely, and even in the reflection of the window, Haru can see that haughty little pose he strikes, with a hand on his hip and a single finger prodding Sousuke gently against the chest. 

"I -- ah, I mean," Sousuke laughs that nervous laugh again, and Haru can practically _feel_ Rin's ego swelling. "Could've been worse things to be slightly off the mark about, right?" There's a pause, and then, "anyway, you're a lot cuter than the pictures could've prepared me for, so I think we're even." 

Haru rolls his eyes so hard he thinks they might fall out of his head, even more so when he hears the choked noise Rin utters in his surprise. 

"Uh -- I, um." In his inability to properly articulate his words, Sousuke laughs again, and Haru still can't understand what's so funny about how dorky the both of them sound. Sousuke clears his throat, starts again, "I brought you this." 

This time both Nagisa and Haru sneak glances at the pair. Sousuke steals a hand from one of his pockets, opening his fist out in front of him to reveal a tiny pink flower resting in his palm. 

"You like cherry blossoms, yeah? I remember you said something about that." 

Rin says nothing, and neither Nagisa nor Haru can see his face from their vantage point, but apparently something in his expression spurs Sousuke onward, because he suddenly uses his other hand to draw strands of Rin's hair behind his left ear. 

"There's a row of trees on the way from my apartment to here, and this little guy landed on my jacket." He tucks the flower in the spot behind Rin's ear, adjusting it ever so slightly to keep it snug in place. "So, um. Happy first official meeting?" 

"No fair," Rin mumbles in a voice so low that Nagisa and Haru have to strain themselves to hear it. He reaches out to punch Sousuke gently on the arm. "I didn't get you anything."

"That's okay," Sousuke says, smiling down at him. "You can buy me a soda." He jerks a thumb behind him. "There's a machine down that way." 

"Fine," Rin says, shrugging. "But next time, if anyone is buying anyone _anything_ , it'll be decided with this." He holds out a fist. 

"Er, are we going to punch each other…?"

Rin snorts a laugh, then shakes the fist before opening it flat, closing it, then sticking out his first two fingers in a V-shape.

"Ah," Sousuke says, wincing over-dramatically. "If that's the case, might want to have your wallet constantly on the ready." 

"Don't make me laugh." 

Rin's hand goes to tuck his hair behind his ear, an automatic gesture he's wont to do without consciously thinking about it, but when his fingers ghost over the flower petals, he pauses. Heat floods his face and the corners of his lips quirk in a soft smile, and then he's moving to stride past Sousuke in the direction of the machine.

"What about those two," Sousuke says, nodding over Rin's head. "Your friends, I'm guessing?"

Haru and Nagisa jump at being suddenly addressed, and without looking back, they can feel Rin's glare boring holes into their backs. 

Before Nagisa can protest, "we were _just_ leaving, Rin-chan, I swear!" and before Rin can do anything drastic, like stomp toward them and knock their heads together as he was likely to do, Sousuke chuckles warmly and all three of them hesitate. 

"Oh, I get to see the cute wrinkly-nosed pout in person too, huh," Sousuke says. "I'm a big fan." 

"You'll get sick of it, trust me," Haru mutters as Rin's flushes pink again. Taking advantage of the moment, Nagisa starts pushing Haru along by the back, ushering the two of them down the sidewalk in the opposite direction.

"Bye, Rin-chan, have fun!" Nagisa calls over his shoulder as the hurry away. Under his breath, he hisses, "go, Haru-chan, while he's still too stunned to react!" 

A few hours later, when the two have long since returned to Haru's apartment and are lounging around in front of the TV watching a horror movie, Nagisa's phone suddenly vibrates and his ringtone blares loudly through the room. He feels around for it somewhere in the pocket of his bag, and when he retrieves it, he opens it to see he's received a picture message from Rin, with the subject line of the message reading: _thank you_. 

It's a selfie taken by Rin himself, of him and Sousuke sitting side by side on a bench. With the hand not clutching the phone, Rin is grabbing Sousuke by the chin, drawing him close enough to grant Rin access to kiss him on the cheek. He's staring right into the camera as he does so, the smug grin loud on every inch of his features. 

"Eeeww, Rin-chan," Nagisa whines, making a face and handing the phone over to Haru, who rolls his eyes. 

"This is your fault, Nagisa." 

"You're the one who insisted he swipe the guy with the pool!"

"You took the picture of him pouting." 

"…we're both at fault?" 

They nod at the same time.

Haru suddenly gestures for Nagisa to sit next to him. He takes out his own phone this time, pivots it around, and takes a photo of the two of them both sticking out their tongues at the camera. He sends it to Rin with the subject line reading: _no problem don't send us anymore pictures of you kissing please thanks_

They finish the rest of the movie in peace.


End file.
